General > General Technical Chat
Why is some ebay shipping so high?
Helix70:
--- Quote from: james_s on February 19, 2020, 05:40:04 pm ---
--- Quote from: PTR_1275 on January 12, 2020, 11:22:27 am ---They might put in a weight of 50kg to deliberately make ebay out the price of postage up. For some reason a lot of American sellers refuse to deal with international sales and this is their way of making it “worth their while”
--- End quote ---
It's because international shipping is a big pain in the ass, and it's very expensive so it cuts significantly into any profit, none of that is our fault.
For domestic shipping you can purchase the postage online and schedule a pickup, print a label and set the parcel out on the porch near the scheduled time, it is picked up and you're done.
International postage means take time off work to drive to the post office while they're open, wait in line anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour to get to the one counter out of six that is actually open, find the correct customs forms and take time to fill those out, listing the contents in detail and answering questions from the rude clerk who usually barely speaks English, then hope the item survives its ordeal and makes it to the buyer intact, and hope the buyer is not a scammer. Ultimately it means taking at least an hour out of the day that could be spent working or doing other things vs just a few minutes for domestic shipping.
Then there is the cost issue, shipping international from the USA has become exorbitantly expensive, even a small box sent next door to Canada is at least double what it costs to ship within the US and it goes up from there when sending elsewhere. The longer journey means bulkier and heavier packaging which is more expensive still. Because ebay is crooked and charges fees on not only the final bid price but the postage price too, and then greedy paypal charges their own fees, and additional fees on international transactions means that selling to foreign customers can easily result in a negative profit while selling the same price item locally can be worthwhile.
This all conspires to create a situation where offering international sales is simply not worth it. I have sold things a few times where after all the fees I actually lost money on the transaction and it would have been cheaper to simply throw the thing away. Between the risk of that and the far greater hassle of international shipping it's just not worth dealing with. I would gladly sell to anyone anywhere on a level playing field but with ebay I am strictly domestic only unless the seller can arrange for a forwarding service so that I'm only paying fees on domestic shipping and someone else is doing all the tedious customs paperwork. Don't blame the sellers, blame the system that stacks the deck heavily against us.
--- End quote ---
Now that eBay offers the global shipping program, why not offer it? You get all of those local shipping benefits you mentioned, as you send it to eBay's shipping depot in the US. I assume they use the same postal system for that, that you offer your local customers? Then you are done and eBay use a bulk transport carrier to get it overseas.
All we want is options, ones that you guys make your money the same, and are compensated for any extra time if the user chooses the PITA method anyway. Some stuff if bought on a whim, I don't care if it takes an extra 2 weeks.
james_s:
I'm not opposed to doing so, I have just never really explored it. I'm not a high volume seller by any means, I'm just a hobbyist who occasionally decides to part with something to make room for something else.
I suspect it's largely a case of not knowing about it, or concern that the already high paypal fees will be higher. I suppose there's also an element of fear, it's a lot easier for someone in a far off land to claim the item is not as described, damaged, didn't arrive, etc and a lot harder for us to do anything about it. There are some countries I'd be a lot more comfortable shipping to than others. I know several people who got scammed selling high value items to certain parts of the world. There are also a few notorious broker type companies that purchase items for foreign buyers and part of their normal business practice is to select the cheapest postage option submit a not received or damaged claim on anything that is not shipped with airtight signature confirmation and insurance.
Also as someone else said, contact the seller, I know that personally if someone contacts me and sounds genuinely interested and doesn't seem scammy I'm typically willing to work with them. Just because I've listed it as US only doesn't mean I'm completely unwilling to send it abroad, I just don't want added hassle every time and have been burned by a few past incidents that I don't want to repeat.
notsob:
you could also try a US pack and send company, (especially is whoever you are ordering from will not ship outside of the US), they will order within the US from multiple suppliers, repack your orders and ship them to you
google this
overseas pack and send in usa to "your country"
Helix70:
--- Quote from: james_s on February 20, 2020, 02:01:48 am ---I'm not opposed to doing so, I have just never really explored it. I'm not a high volume seller by any means, I'm just a hobbyist who occasionally decides to part with something to make room for something else.
I suspect it's largely a case of not knowing about it, or concern that the already high paypal fees will be higher. I suppose there's also an element of fear, it's a lot easier for someone in a far off land to claim the item is not as described, damaged, didn't arrive, etc and a lot harder for us to do anything about it. There are some countries I'd be a lot more comfortable shipping to than others. I know several people who got scammed selling high value items to certain parts of the world. There are also a few notorious broker type companies that purchase items for foreign buyers and part of their normal business practice is to select the cheapest postage option submit a not received or damaged claim on anything that is not shipped with airtight signature confirmation and insurance.
Also as someone else said, contact the seller, I know that personally if someone contacts me and sounds genuinely interested and doesn't seem scammy I'm typically willing to work with them. Just because I've listed it as US only doesn't mean I'm completely unwilling to send it abroad, I just don't want added hassle every time and have been burned by a few past incidents that I don't want to repeat.
--- End quote ---
I didn't mean that specifically towards you, us Aussies get frustrated not being able to share in the bounty that is the US salvaged test gear market. Trying to understand so I can get better gear in the future without giving it to eBay or the government. 😀
mjs:
I'm selling some stuff from Finland and our local post is ridiculously expensive for international (and domestic..) shipments. That reflects directly on the eBay shipping price.
Also, USPS has fcked up a few of my shipments (late and refuneded, other destroyed+returned).
Well, I guess they need to cover the costs of delivering state sponsored shipments of small items from east.
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